Today is Thanksgiving day. As I create art in the kitchen and in my studio, and reflect on my many blessings of this life (like the fact that I just went out and dug up MORE sweet potatoes and onion out of my garden on this gorgeous day to share on this day of feast) , I think of you. I appreciate you and the friend you have been to me. The support you have offered to me is immeasurable and i am reminded that today more than ever, we need to stand together in love. Thank you with profound sincerity. I love you
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I was invited to submit several pieces of my art into an online art gallery called Bauhaus Prairie Art gallery. Both pieces were selected and one piece, that was inspired by my travels to Italy this summer was selected as best of show. There were 80 entries and so I am pretty excited about this accomplishment. The site is marketed to museums, art dealers, galleries, interior design companies and to corporate collection contacts. So the networking continues and I continue to do my best to try to paint something or at least to create something each and every day. I will post the link here if you would like to see the show . I am waiting on the arrival of my 2017 wall calendar! Last years calendar was greatly appreciated by many and I have had requests to do another so this years calendar will include 13 of my paintings none of which were included in last years calendar. The calendar will be $22 and will make a lovely Christmas present for your loved one. If you are interested, you can email me at stacia@staciabaker.com or it can be ordered right here in my store. They will be in the store within the next week. This afternoon I returned from a short but sweet trip to Maine. It was from Wednesday night to Monday morning. There is something about having my feet on the ground in Maine that grounds me. It feels like I have gone home. I saw friends. Not all of my friends but a few. It was kind of a spur of the moment trip. It is amazing how just a hug and a short time spent can reinforce and strengthen the ties between myself and those friends that have been there for me for so long. I went with my son, Keenan. He went for a friend's wedding. For him to go home was also a big deal after leaving some skeletons in the closet. I wanted to support him first and foremost. I visited with him and his good friends and realized that for many of them, life has been a fight. It has not been a walk in the park. I am struck by their perseverance and strength and their desire to make it and to have their families behind them. I am struck by the lack of support that some of them have. It makes me sad but I admire them. I loved how they just wanted to talk to me . They wanted advice and support. I think they wanted the advice of a mother which unfortunately they live without . I am proud of my son and I think he recognized how fortunate he is to have the support of his family. As some of you may know, I am in the midst of a painting challenge. It is to paint 90 paintings in 90 days ( I have decided that the days that I travel are exempt). These are very quick studies. They are painted quickly with a 15 minute commitment. It really is not about the final product but about the practice. It is about daily commitment and practice and so far, I am really enjoying it. I will get back to my larger canvases but working on paper is an interesting change. Tonight as i returned to my practice, my good friend Alane Downes sent me a message to listen to a song that she heard that made her think of me. She thought I would like it. It is called Long way home by Enter the Haggis. Wow the lyrics spoke to me as I painted and thought of my visit to Maine. "I feel like I've wandered most of my years... If the road is the body, then a home is the soul. I've seen country and city and I've made them both mine....It's a long way to go, It's a long, long , long way home... I stand on your front porch staring back at the rain...I guess I should have called first but it's just not my way... A suitcase of memories is what I have to show...It's a long long long way home" The actual you tube link to this beautiful song is below. Thank you Alane! Colorado and Maine are both home to me. I stand back in the majesty of the mountains of the west and feel gratitude that I was able to go home even if for just a minute. Thank you for reading! With love, Stacia Under normal circumstances , i only post my blog on average monthly. This post comes on the heels of my last post, That which calls your name just last week. I have continued to consider this issue of that which calls my name. Firstly, if you read my last blog post I quoted some concepts about curiosity and passion. There was a BIG error. I quoted Brene Brown when in reality it was Elizabeth Gilbert who discussed these issues of curiosity and passion. OOPs. had to clarify that snafu! If you don't know about Brene Brown and Elizabeth Gilbert you need to. They are amazing and you can hear them on Ted Talks or youtube. So back to that which calls my name. As you may have read in my most recent blog post, we spent the summer travelling but did not get to the alpine country of Colorado very much. When i moved to Colorado at 19 years of age the West grabbed me. There is something about standing in an aspen grove that for me is sacred. It is like standing in a cathedral. Did you know that an Aspen grove is one living organism and the largest living organism in the world is the aspen grove along Kebler pass on the way to Crested butte. Anyway , this labor day i decided to hit the aspen country. I invited several friends and several family members all of whom declined. Which was really good with me because i am a lover of time alone. I headed out with Paddington and Morgan ( my pups), who by the way NEVER decline! We drove to the Grande Mesa. This is the largest flat top mountain in the world. It is only 50 minutes from my home and is like a different world from the high desert in which i live. There are 300 lakes on the Grande Mesa. It is lush, cool ( 20 degrees cooler than where i live) and has a little bit of a taste of upstate NY or Maine. Lots of lakes, pine trees and my beloved Aspen trees. It is very remote and there are miles and miles to explore on back country roads, remote lakes and fresh cool air. I walked for 7 miles in 3 hours. I smelled the pine, listened to the wind and watched the Aspen leaves as they flutter in the wind like jewels. It was magnificent. What i felt most profoundly was that i was at the exact moment when summer turns to fall. The wildflowers still stood strong and brilliant but the grasses and weeds and Aspen began to turn their brilliant shades of fall. It was 62 degrees as i started out with my hooded Martha's Vineyard sweatshirt which I soon removed when the sun warmed to what felt like remnants of summer. The path showed the first signs of leaves falling from the trees. I am always trying to find time for painting. But life is so full of opportunities and the high country has been calling me. I am so grateful that i took the time to visit this place that for me is so sacred. To have quiet time with me. To listen to nature and let it soak into my bones so that as i return to my family and my life as a doctor ( tomorrow morning) and to my studio, i have a bit of inspiration. My soul is full and I feel complete. I do believe that this listen to that which calls you is a thing. You should try it. highly recommend. This long weekend was way too short so as we head back into life tomorrow, may we know what is important . That we can focus on those things that we hold as essential for life. Those people. those experiences. those practices and those other important tidbits. whatever they may be. with love stacia and to share a bit of what i did work on this weekend. a work on paper with derwent inktense blocks. fun!
Temperatures are dropping, kids return to school and the season is changing. This summer was very busy for me. Lots of travel! Which, if you know me, you know i live for traveling . We had a great summer. Unfortunately we saw little of the glorious high country of Colorado which is amazing during the summer but we got to travel to Italy to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We also got to Chicago to see Hannah and to do the river architecture tour (which is a must!) and to Denver to peruse the Denver art museum's female abstract expressionism exhibit and the Clyfford Still art museum ( both of which I highly recommend!). What a treat that was! We then went to Seattle to visit our friends Randi and John. Kelly helped John install custom wood doors throughout their house. While he did that , I attended an abstract art workshop at the Miller school of Art with the amazing Ardith Goodwin. Talk about an authentic , caring, passionate, well organized teacher. She is a born teacher with a luscious southern drawl. We studied composition, color theory, the figure and how to express emotion through our brush strokes. It was a treat to meet new artists and to learn and share our passion with each other.
We got to witness the glory of Mount Rainier from a distance as well as the pacific coast and the fresh water lakes of the Pacific Northwest, We ate the seafood that is abundant there. We rekindled friendships and made new friends. We enjoyed staying in our friend's "treehouse". Now home, I am transitioning back into routine. I am called to return to my daily painting practice. I remain passionate to become a better and more accomplished painter. I am excited to see what this fall and winter holds in store. I hope to continue to reach those who appreciate my work. If you are ever so inclined, please share it with those you love. When i share a painting, I share a piece of myself. My love, my beliefs, my feelings. My hope as we wrap up this summer season is that as we go back inside to darker and shorter days that we find THAT WHICH CALLS OUR NAME. That we continue to find what makes us curious. Brene Brown talks of following our curiosity and that it might just lead us to our passion. She says that Creativity, which is the expression of our originality, helps us stay mindful that what we bring to the world is completely original and cannot be compared. And without comparison, concepts like ahead or behind or best or worst lose their meaning . Sometimes it feels like there is pressure in our modern world to find what makes us passionate. I feel incredibly blessed that my passion landed in my lap again after first finding my passion as a physician, secondly as a parent and thirdly as a painter. I hope our lives inch us closer to that which is our purpose. The world needs us to shine our own individual light boldly and brightly. Shine on .. thank you for reading! with love. Happy fall! my favorite time of year to sign up for my monthly blog or to see my newest paintings, go to staciabaker.com stacia On this summer morning before the world awakens , I am contemplating dreams. Our dreams and how they can come true. After returning from Italy, and transitioning back into every day life ( which is not all that easy by the way) I am beginning to get over the fatigue that came on by flying to new time zones and walking miles and miles of hills, stones and ancient lands. It has been a dream of mine for at least fifteen years to go to Italy but especially to hike the Cinque Terre. I began planning this trip more than 15 years ago. As I hiked from Corniglia to Manarola and on to Vernazza, along the Mediterranean Sea, I could feel the most amazing satisfaction that comes of dreams fulfilled. I felt immense gratitude. Our lives are full of contrasts. As a painter , I am learning the amazing power of contrasts. Contrasts in color, contrasts in shade, contrasts in shape and contrast in line. Our lives are the same. We are all reeling with confusion and feelings about the recent happenings in our world. I think that most of us struggle to understand the different perspectives on various issues that our world is facing. There is so much darkness in the world. I hope that we can all take a moment each day to recognize the amazing light that exists as well. The light of life. Dreams fulfilled, goals accomplished, hopes realized, sorrows survived and challenges surmounted. Contrast. How can we appreciate anything without the power of contrast.
This is all in all a short life. Today I will be thankful for this life and will set the intention for the dreams that I will create today. What do I really really really want? What am i really willing to give up. Clarity is the key to unlock my dreams. I wish you all a happy 4th of July! i will be on call this holiday weekend and will be staying home and hope to play with some blank white canvases. To dreams ... with love Stacia Spring has sprung. The green, my favorite color by the way is nuts! I am humbled by the gorgeousness that is the western slope of Colorado in the spring. It is the high desert but it is lush and abundant. On my walk tonight , I thought of how much it reminded me of Ireland, wait what? I know. There is no ocean and the hills are not rolling . but... The desert is a very very lush, colorful and amazing place.
It has been a little bit challenging lately to get into my studio. I feel like i am running. Between work and what is drawing me the strongest, my gardens and the gorgeousness of the outdoors, I am feeling tethered. Planting the garden and landscaping lost spaces call me. Plants are my thing more than animals. I realize that is my nature. This week I went to the film.. Painting the modern garden Monet to Matisse. Gorgeousness! For the first time ever i realized the amazingness of Monet. He was inspired to create 3-D ... gardens, like sculptures. France in the early 1900's. I feel like i can follow his footsteps. My garden is a huge part of my inspiration. I feel like that film validated my fascination with gardens and the acceptance that it is as valuable as my time painting. It is interesting to me that several people have now referred to my art as being connected to my life as a healer, a physician. They have said that they feel my knowledge of the human body in my strokes. I am passionate about my work as a physician. I feel that healing happens in the simplest moments. The conversations. The honesty. The truth. I feel grateful that I have been blessed with a profession that I feel passionate about. It has been a labor of love. Kelly and I will be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary in Italy in the coming week. I know that it will be a source of inspiration for my creativity. Stay tuned. I will share some of the adventures in my blog here. I will share pictures. I will be sketching my way and can not wait to see where that inspiration lands on my canvas. I will be taking in new sounds, new color , new textures and new tastes. I will be fun to see how that will inform my paintings. Stay tuned... With love, as always Stacia Beyond My Capacity 30 x 30 I have not had a blog post in a couple of months. But things have been busy in my world. What is amazing is that in the last several weeks I have been getting a bit of local Grand Junction attention. I feel like my work is getting out there and people realize that I am in fact an artist. There was a competition for the local St Mary's Hospital where they are trying to furnish the new 11th and 12th floor of the hospital with artwork. A healing environment. As a physician and painter who is passionate at both, I would ADORE for my paintings to hang in the hospital where people are trying to become well, stay well and need a touch of inspiration. Anyway I submitted several pieces and two got selected for purchase. Unfortunately AND fortunately they had both sold already. I heard back from them yesterday and they agreed to have me submit some other paintings. We will see.. I then was contacted by the Western Colorado Art Center. They saw my work and said they loved it. They asked if I would be interested in submitting a piece for the fine art auction in May and of course i said YES. I then got an email that Colorado Mesa University here in town has two buildings on campus for which they are wanting art to furnish their walls. They in total have a $180,000 budget and it seems they are looking for large! I love painting large and so it is time to buy some very large blank canvases. This is all so exciting for me. I was feeling a bit frustrated by the "art scene" in Grand Junction. I feel that the momentum is changing and art is becoming is a priority. Hannah has been visiting. She left today and I feel a hole in my heart but also feel like it is right that she go off and spread her wings some more. She is in Chicago now and she has at least 5 of my paintings in her apartment. She says that she loves them and her friends want my art on their walls now. I love when young people can appreciate art. Art heals. There is no question in my mind. I still sometimes wonder how did this happen. I was never an artist. What i now know is that we are ALL artists. We all have the hidden or unhidden potential to create beyond our wildest imagination. Think about that.... seriously. We need creative people in this somewhat crazy world that we are living in. Renoir said, " One must from time to time attempt things that are beyond one's capacity" . I believe that to be true. I continue to adore my work as a physician. Today I left work feeling amazed by the people that I met and worked with to move them towards better health whether it be physical, emotional or spiritual. I was called to do this work without a doubt. Being a family doctor has been one of the biggest blessings in my life. I thank each and every one of you for reading my blog, for commenting and sharing my art work and for just being who you are and for being part of my life. I will keep you updated on the above "competitions" Happy spring!!! With love, Stacia Today I received my shipment of calendars. These are 2016 calendars that feature 13 of my original paintings . They are high quality images and I think it came out beautiful. I have 14 left and that will likely be my last order for this year. They are $20 which includes shipping within the US. If you are interested, just go over to my store and you should be able to easily order. They are ready to be shipped at any time. I will definitely do this again next year as i love how it came out. We all need calendars to keep our lives in order and I love having this compilation of my work. I will be working on my blog post for February very soon. Stay tuned. Thank you for your ongoing support. Love, Stacia I have been incredibly moved by the support I have received from all of my readers. Thank you. You Hold Me Up... First and foremost, I thank you for being on my team. You have all inspired me to be better, more creative, more alive. More than ever , I want to live the life that I am here to live. To be as fully me as I can be. There are things I want in my life. Many of them I have , some i do not . I want them all. That is all the ones anyway, that are especially important to me. Today I hiked in the snowy blue sunshine that is so Colorado. It has been COLD. I have had a bit of cabin fever and it is early in the winter. I then cleaned out my studio ( which has been a disaster) and cleaned my palette as I listened to Elizabeth Gilbert's . Big Magic . on audible. I love her! The book i finished today was also written by her , The signature of all things. I loved that book! Anyway, in Big Magic, she talks about making things, creating things. She talked about when you are not feeling inspired, at least be curious. She talked about curiosity and it's important relationship to inspiration and creativity. And she talked about pushing forward, despite the fact that you are not feeling inspired. Her story telling is magical to me. My little synopsis here does not do her work one ounce of justice. It is time now after the holiday to return to my daily practices. Today , as i was cleaning my studio , I came across this photo , It is a classic. I framed it a few years ago. I am not a true collector of things unless they have real meaning . This does. It is my grandma dorothy and my grandpa Joe. They were life changers for me. They are my heritage. They are now with me on the walls of my studio. My ancestors are cheering me on. We all need that don't we? The memories of my times with them are engraved in my DNA. For them, I give thanks. For 2016, I wish you love, health , vitality and adventure. May we all live creative and loving lives. It all starts with looking in the mirror. Goin painting... Happy New Year !! I love you all. My hope is that you are curious about something today. Stacia |
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